Life is but an endless series of experiments.
A man who is swayed by negative emotions may have good enough intentions, may be truthful in word, but he will never find the Truth.
Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.
If you want to shine like sun, first you have to burn like it.
An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.
Unless you go on discovering new applications of the law of nonviolence, you do not profit by it.
Silence is a great help to a seeker after truth like myself.
Man is the product of two forces, action and reaction, which make him think.
No sacrifice is worth the name unless it is a joy. Sacrifice and a long face go ill together. Sacrifice is 'making sacred'. He must be a poor specimen of humanity who is in need of sympathy for his sacrifice.
Diversity there certainly is in the world, but it means neither inequality nor untouchability.
A wretched parent who claims obedience from his children, without first doing his duty by them, excites nothing but contempt.
If as a member of a slave nation I could deliver the suppressed classes from their slavery without freeing myself from my own, I would do so today. But it is an impossible task.
Do not figure out big plans at first, but, begin slowly, feel your ground and proceed up and up.
One may detest the wickedness of a brother without hating him.
Swaraj is not meant for cowards, but for those who would mount smilingly to the gallows and refuse even to allow their eyes to be bandaged.
You can return blow for blow if you are not brave enough to follow the path of nonviolence.
None deserves liberty who is not ready to give liberty
What makes you weep, my friend? In you is all power. Summon up your all-powerful nature, O mighty one, and this whole universe will lie at your feet. It is the Self alone that predominates, and not matter.
The khadi spirit means fellow-feeling with every human being on earth.
True knowledge gives a moral standing and moral strength.
It is a constant change. Not one body is constant.
A courageous man prefers death to the surrender of self-respect.
When death is so certain, it is better to die for a good cause.
There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e. the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state, to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being.
The cow to me is a sermon on pity.
My non-violence bids me dedicate myself to the service of the minorities.
Many of us get many messages in our lives, or think we get them. As long as the message is regarding our own selves, go on doing what you please. But when it is in regard to our contact with and behavior to others, think a hundred times before you act upon it-and then you will be safe.
Does not the history of the world show that there would have been no romance in life if there had been no risks?
Are great things ever done smoothly? Time, patience, and indomitable will must show.
I have known many meat eaters to be far more nonviolent than vegetarians.
Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.
The call of the spinning wheel is the noblest of all. Because it is the call of love. And love is Swaraj.
No cowardice, no sin, no crime, no weakness - the rest will come of itself. . .
I would bend the knee before the poorest scavenger, the poorest untouchable in India for having participated in crushing him for centuries; I would even take the dust off his feet.
Never be afraid of the moments--thus sings the voice of the everlasting.
We have none of us seen a form which had not a beginning and will not have an end.
Every nation has to follow a certain policy: Commercial, trade, various other types of policies.
Begin with duties of a man and rights will follow as spring follows winter
Ahimsa and love are one and the same thing.
I had learnt at the onset not to carry on public work with borrowed money.
Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with 'what can I give' spirit.
Blessed are they whose bodies get destroyed in the service of others.
Fear gone, there can be no hatred.
Why, of all places in Johannesburg, the Indian location should be chosen for dumping down all kaffirs of the town, passes my comprehension. Of course, under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population, and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my countrymen.
My modesty has prevented me from declaring from the house top that the message of non-co-operation, nonviolence and swadeshi is a message to the world.
Non-violence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Non-violence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Non-violence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Non-violence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering. Perfect non-violence is the highest bravery. Non-violent conduct is never demoralising; cowardice always is.
It may be long before the law of love will be recognised in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another.
Art must be in touch with nature - and wherever that touch is gone, Art degenerates - yet it must be above nature.
Education is not filling the mind with a lot of facts. Perfecting the instrument and getting complete mastery of my own mind [is the ideal of education].
"Comfort" is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being "comfortable".
The weapon of nonviolence does not need supermen or superwomen to wield it; even beings of common clay can use it and have used it before this with success.
All my games were political games; I was, like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burned at the stake.
Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.
Change is always subjective.
Love and ahimsa are matchless in their effect.
I have shut my mind against nothing and I am a friend of Great Britain. I always have been. I have no axe to grind.
Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature.
Man is not to drown himself in the well of the Shastras, but he is to dive in their broad ocean and bring out pearls.
Man's free agency is not of the mind, for that is bound. There is no freedom there.
The greatest of all contraceptives is affluence.
